Apex Legends is a battle royale first person shooter that mixes your typical shooter with unique character abilities. It’s like if Overwatch had a baby with Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. Cartoonish characters running around with guns hoping to be the last person standing. Each match has 60 people (squads of three) parachuting into an arena hoping to be the last one alive to be crowned champion. Which brings us to an important question.
How long does an Apex Legends match take? A single game of Apex Legends can be as short as 60 seconds or less, but as long as 30 minutes. The determining factor is how good of a player you are. If you’re the first person to be killed than the match will be short lived, but if you’re battling it out in the final circle the match can be as long as 30 minutes.
It should be noted that these numbers are for squads only. You can only get that 30 minute mark if you’re in the final circle that reduces to nothing. It’s fairly rare for the final teams to get into this circle as it has a diameter of 4m.
Usually a full game of Apex Legends will be closer to the 30 minute mark if the final circle is placed in a position where teams are in different levels, and can’t shoot at one another. Such as one team on a roof, and the other inside a building on the ground floor. The final circle will eventually disappear, and the circle will close into nothingness. Theoretically, you could push the time limit even further by using Lifeline to heal while using syringes.
During the Iron Crown Event of Season 2, solo play was added. No longer would you have to play on randoms or wait until your friends were on to play together as a squad. Instead you could duke it out in an arena filled with solo players. It was truly 60 individuals shooting it out to be the victor. In the Iron Crown Solo Event, games of Apex were much faster. The time between circles was much shorter, and forced everyone to come together quicker. The longest a solo round of Apex could last was approximately 13 minutes.
A Few Tips to Survive Longer
Are you hoping to increase the average length of an Apex Legends match? Here’s a few tips…
- Don’t hot drop! Hot drops are fun, because its instant action. Dropping onto the ship, a high loot area, or skull town can lead to great rewards, but the risk of dying is high. If you’re not feeling competent stay away from hot drops. You’ll make it longer in the match if you land somewhere farther away.
- Be aware of the “pinch.” Part of the current meta of Apex Legends is getting 3rd partied. This happens anytime you’re fighting another squad, and a 3rd team rushes in to pinch the team in the middle or quickly take out enemies while they’re already low on health. It can be quite annoying to win a fight, but only to have a 3rd squad rush in to take you out. You should constantly be positioning yourself to avoid getting pinched by a 3rd squad, and in a place where you can quickly fall back for protection.
- Don’t Rush Buildings – For better or worse, the current meta is not favorable to teams rushing into well defended buildings. With Wattson’s fences and Caustic’s gas traps – it usually is a suicide mission to rush into an occupied building. Unless the team is completely unaware of your rush – than I would advise charging into buildings that are locked down.
- Camp it up! – No shame in camping if you’re trying to prolong a game of Apex. Especially if you’re attempting to complete a daily challenge or get ranked points, and need to get into the final three teams. Find a nook, a quiet building, and take it easy. Don’t move around or charge your Peacekeeper. Just keep quiet, and let everyone else kill each other.
So what about you? What’s your average length of time for a game of Apex Legends? My friends and I have good nights that push the average closer into the twenty minute range, but we’ve had those sessions where we just can’t make it into the first circle. If you’ve only got 30 minutes, than hop into the arena for a single game. Just make sure you’ve got what it takes to survive!
